


Just a Little Space

by francefrancerevolution



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 07:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/francefrancerevolution/pseuds/francefrancerevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Valjean, afraid of losing Cosette to that boy in Luxembourg Gardens, does the first thing any protective father would think of: rents a spaceship, and drags Cosette off to a far, far, far away planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a Little Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CarolineKnightley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarolineKnightley/gifts).



> Happy holidays!!

Cosette couldn’t breathe.

And no, this wasn’t some lovey-dovey nonsense about being parted from her beloved (well, the boy in the park last week, but still. This wasn’t about him.) This wasn’t about fluttering lashes and scented handkerchiefs and shy glances and regretful parting smiles. Cosette, quite literally, could not breathe.

“It’s all natural,” her papa said as Cosette grasped desperately at his hand. “Don’t think too much about it, just breathe. There’s less air up here, it’s natural.”

Cosette had known she had doomed for the moment she saw the flyer sitting on their kitchen table, neatly cut out from one of the boring magazines her papa read.

_Do you want a new life_ , the red and black flyer announced in big block letters.

_Do you want to escape?_

_Or would you simply like a one-of-a-kind experience?_

And Cosette knew, from that moment, that she better start packing, and she better pack a lot of clothes, because the flyer promised that you could stay in the galaxy for as long as you liked, that the new planet would be very hospitable, and Cosette knew she wouldn’t be coming back. Not for a long time.

* * *

“I don’t think she’s coming back,” Courfeyrac said. He and Marius Pontmercy had been sitting on the same bench in Luxembourg Gardens for three hours, and there had been no sighting of the pretty blond that Marius had been raving about.

            “She has to come,” Marius said dreamily. “I think I’m in love with her, Courfeyrac.”

            “You don’t say.” Their entire apartment had smelled like the overbearing floral perfume from the girl’s handkerchief. Courfeyrac remembered that he never asked Marius exactly _how_ he acquired the handkerchief, opened his mouth to ask, and then decided better of it.

            “I don’t think she’s coming back,” he said again.

            Marius sighed heavily, buying his face in his hands. “If only I knew where she lived.”

            “Marius.”

            “Don’t talk to me, I’m grieving.”

            “Marius.”

            “What?”

            “Didn’t you follow her home last weekend?”

            “Oh. Right.” Marius stood up and walked off, leaving Courfeyrac sitting on the bench, wondering if he should be grinning at his friend’s lovesick antics, or dragging him off to a doctor to see if bleeding him would do anything to cure this mad pining.

            But Courfeyrac did love romance, and helping Marius find his long-lost love was far, far better than writing pamphlets with Combeferre, and being subjected to hour-long rants about the oppressive history of the monarchy from Enjolras, and besides, he was already late and Enjolras had probably already locked him out.

            He pranced after Marius, whistling to himself.

            “We’ll find her,” he yelled. “She can’t have gone far!”

* * *

Paris had completely disappeared an hour ago, first becoming nothing more than a tangled mass of streets and then fading completely as they drifted farther and farther away. Now, their planet itself was just a speck.

            “Is this truly necessary?” Cosette asked. “Papa, I don’t know what you’re running from, but please, this is too much. Let’s turn back.”

            “I’m sorry, Cosette. But we can’t.”

            “What did Earth ever do to you?”

            “It’s a miserable planet, Cosette. It’s filled with death and suffering and corruption.”

            “But things were changing! You heard what they were whispering about. The students . . . the people . . . they’re planning something. They want to change things. They’ll change everything.”

            “And so they may. But that planet is still miserable.”

            Cosette slouched into her seat, playing with the belt around her chest to keep her from floating away as the gravity vanished. “I thought you of all people would believe in redemption,” she said.

            Her papa turned to the window and closed his eyes with a tired sigh.

            Cosette stared out the other window, silently, vowing to not look at her father. She would never look at him again, she would never speak to him again, she would never look away from this window . . .

            Earth was swallowed up into the vast expanse of darkness and Cosette gasped, turning away from the window.

* * *

Marius and Courfeyrac had been staring at the flyer for an hour before Courfeyrac managed to find a voice, and croak out,

            “Space travel?”

            Marius sunk to his heels, sitting against the wall. “She really is gone.”

            “Space travel,” Courfeyrac repeated. “Who does that?”

            “The beautiful girl I’m never going to see again.”  Marius looked seconds away from bursting into tears, and Courfeyrac sat down beside him.

            “Now hold on a second . . . it says here that smaller space pods can be rented for shorter excursions. We can rent one and go after her! Profess your love and bring her back here.”

            Marius grinned for a moment, nodding, but then his smile quickly faded and his lips went back to trembling. “But that would require money, and last time I checked, my coat had six holes in it and you haven’t gone out in a week because you can’t afford flowers for your dates.”

            Courfeyrac chewed the inside of his lip, pondering. “The two of us may be broke, but we have friends, yes? Friends who will gladly help us out.”

            “They’re _your friends._ And besides, why would anyone want to help me rent a spaceship to go after the girl of my dreams?”

* * *

“You did what?” Enjolras asked.

            Combeferre shrugged. “Gave Courfeyrac half the money from my trust-fund. He said he’d pay it back, and besides, it seems like a noble cause.”

            “Marius is annoying and has problematic political beliefs.”

            “It gets him and Courfeyrac out of our hair while we try to write these speeches,” Combeferre finally said.

       Enjolras raised an eyebrow and then shrugged, lighting another candle so they could keep working in peace.

* * *

The space pod was smaller than Courfeyrac anticipated. Smaller than anything he wanted to be spending an extended amount of time with Marius in. He wasn’t sure what he had expected; all the money he had scraped together from his friends and members of Les Amis hadn’t been very much, even though he had practically fallen to his knees and begged.

            Still, he thought, as he glanced over at Marius, this _was_ for love.  And love, even Marius’ stupidly endearing love, was something beautiful.

                “Do you know how to work this thing?” Marius asked, pulling himself out of his reverie.

                Courfeyrac shrugged. He should have known that Marius would be too distracted with thoughts of his beloved to  pay attention to the detailed instructions they had been given before stepping inside the space pod. But Courfeyrac, even though he didn’t have a woman (well, not _currently)_ was still distracted. When the space travel program had first begun, back when Courfeyrac was still a child, he had begged his parents to take him someday. He wanted to see the stars up close, feel their reflections in his eyes. He wanted to float, imaging how free it would be. His parents had promised to take him, someday, but then came university and Enjolras and politics, politics that his parents didn’t agree with, and soon the door to everything he used to know was slammed in his face, taking the promise of space travel with it.

            So Courfeyrac couldn’t deny the quick beating of his heart or the shaking of his leg; he was excited. He had been waiting years for this moment, and he was going to enjoy it, even though this moment included Marius talking his ear off about beautiful mystery girl, and didn’t include the smiling, proud parents that he always thought it would.

            “How about this button?” Marius asked, and Courfeyrac shrugged again.

            Marius pushed the tiny red button, and as excited as Courfeyrac was, and as brave as he claimed to be, he couldn’t suppress the yelping noise he made as the pod launched itself into orbit.

* * *

Jean Valjean wasn’t sure what he was running from.

            If he had wanted to make excuses, he would have said he was running from the constant eye of Inspector Javert, who had been chasing him since his convict days. But he knew, always knew, that wherever he went— even into the dark depths of space, even a new planet— that Javert would find him eventually. Maybe not right away, but someday, he would turn a corner and those heartless eyes would be staring at him, a yellowed arrest warrant gripped tightly in his hands.

            He had been running from Javert for years. This time was different.

            Another thing Jean Valjean had always known, the fact sitting cold in his heart, was that Cosette was never truly his. He loved her like a daughter, and she loved him as her father, called him Papa with such endearment, but words and love would never change anything. Cosette was never truly his, and it was only a matter of time before someone came to take her away from him. Someone who deserved her.

            The boy in Luxembourg Gardens shouldn’t have intimidated Jean Valjean as much as he did. He had been wearing a ripped coat, had a dazed smile. Jean Valjean had spent years in prison, seen a prostitute die, seen terrible things, but the very image of this young man set shivers through his spine like nothing ever had.

            He was the one.

            He was going to steal Cosette away.

            Jean Valjean wanted nothing more than for Cosette to be happy. Cosette deserved to be happy. But Cosette being happy meant losing her, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, not yet.

            He glanced over at Cosette. She was still pouting, her pale arms crossed and her perfectly pink lips pursued.

            There would be others, he decided. She didn’t need the boy in Luxembourg Gardens. There would be others. Better ones. And when the time came, when the _perfect_ man came waltzing into their lives, he would let her go. But not now. Too soon.

            “Papa?” Cosette said quietly, breaking the tense silence. “There’s another ship behind us, and it’s coming up fast.”

* * *

“That’s her,” Marius said suddenly, sitting up as they approached the bigger spaceship in front of them. Courfeyrac pushed himself up on shaky legs to look. Space travel, he had realized, wasn’t for him. There was far too much jolting, and really, there wasn’t much out there. Just miles and miles of darkness, though the occasionally bursting star made glancing out the window worthwhile.

            The ship in front of them looked like any other ship. “How do you know?” Courfeyrac asked.

            “I just feel it.”

            “Okay,” Courfeyrac said, and slipped into the pilot’s seat. He pulled down on (what he thought was) was an acceleration lever, sending them shooting up next to the other ship.

            Inside, there was an older man and a young woman. The man looked grizzled, bitter, and he had one hand already reaching for the young woman, like he was ready to pull him away from whatever she saw when she looked out the window. The girl _was_ lovely, all blond hair and porcelain skin and a look of pure innocence about her.

            “That’s her!” Marius yelled. He jumped up, pressing his face against the window. He pounded against the glass. “Hello! Hey! Hello!”

            The girl turned, and when her eyes meet Marius’s, a delicate had flew up to cover her mouth, but Courfeyrac could still see the smile in her eyes. The older man visibly sighed, pulling back his hand. But there was a sliver of happiness in his eyes, a soft spark in the pools of bitterness.

            Courfeyrac smiled, even though no one was looking at him, and nothing had really been accomplished in his favor during this voyage. But, if anyone asked, he could tell them that he had seen some beautiful things during the trip, things that no one else would never imagine.

* * *

When Cosette heard the pounding outside, she turned slowly, half-afraid of what she would see. Space was dark and unknown, so inviting yet so threatening. But it was going to be home now, and she had to face what was out there.

            She turned, and saw the boy from Luxembourg Gardens. He was still wearing that ratty coat, and his faced was squished against the window, but suddenly her heart was beating faster.

            And for the second time since they started their voyage, Cosette couldn’t breathe. But she could get used to it.


End file.
